School Schedules

            A classroom practice that I believe should be changed is high school schedules.  Our school district is currently on the trimester schedule where each student takes five classes per trimester.  Each of the core classes (Math, Science, English, and Social Studies) are taken for two out of three trimesters.  I teach in a typical math classroom and also in the engineering program, which is a magnet program within the normal school day, so students are placed together for math, science, and engineering electives at various points in their high school career.  As a program we are able to change the schedule and manipulate it in any way that we feel best serves the students.  I feel I can serve as a leader to move the idea of an alternate schedule forward in this aspect of the high school schedule. 

            One of the problems that we encounter as teachers in the trimester schedule is the student’s schedules have to change radically after each trimester.  A math student almost never has the same teacher from one trimester to the next.  This only gives us about 3 months to get to know each student’s learning style.  I believe the teacher-student relationship is one of the most important parts of student success and this is not enough time to really understand each of our students.

            Another problem is that students only have the core classes for two-thirds of the year.  It may happen that a student has math 1^st and 2^nd tri one year and then 2^nd and 3^rd tri the next year.  Math has a very specific scaffold and it is difficult to take a break from it for 9 months and then continue on at the same level.  

            A final problem is that there is no time built in the school day for intervention.  The students who are struggling just get pushed through the class until they fail or barely pass.  If they are unable or unwilling to come in before or after school, it is very difficult to give them the attention that they need. 

            We have looked at a few different options for alternate high school schedules.  A school in a suburb of Chicago has a rotating schedule where each day is different for each student.  It has times built in to each day that are for meeting with their teachers and working on content that they need help with.  Each day is different and each teacher has different office hours during the day that students may drop in and get help.  If they don’t need help there is areas in the school for studying and working on other work.  This has worked very well for intervention within the school day, but it is a complicated schedule and it puts quite a bit of responsibility on the students to seek help when they need it.  I think it could be modified and work well for our school.

            Another model that I have seen is one that the state of Massachusetts has recently implemented is a split of core classes and elective/lab classes.  One week student are in their core academic classes and then the next week they are in lab classes that consist of electives or science, math, and engineering lab classes.  All students take all core classes all year and are able to fit in more electives along with having the support of all-year-long core classes.  This could also be modified to fit our needs at our school.

            There is no perfect answer to the student-schedule question, but I think with how technology has changed, we need to better fit the current needs of our students.  Hopefully I can be part of that change in our engineering program and then help foster the idea as a whole school or district.  

Backwards Design

Backwards Design (BWD) is a method of planning instruction that we have used in the St. Mary's masters program.  It works almost exactly how the name describes it.  Instead of focusing first on individual lessons, you focus on overall ideas for the unit and then the assessment that will be used in the unit and then finally individual lessons.  The most helpful part of BWD for me is the first stage.  This past summer I took an elective class that focused only on the first stage.  It was helpful for me to look at what I really wanted my students to learn in that unit.  I wrote essential questions and overall enduring understandings more thoroughly and made it more clear for myself what I needed to focus on.  The unit I focused on was for my honors geometry class and it is a fairly simple unit that mainly introduces students to introductory vocabulary that is used throughout the class.  It was really nice to take time to think about how I could enhance that unit with better essential questions.  When I taught it this year, I was able to get students to think about two and three dimensions more deeply.  By planning the unit using the BWD method, I was able to better implement critical thinking in the class, which is one of my goals for the year.   

Action Research Abstract

This action research centers around standards based grading and how it improves student proficiency in two Intermediate Algebra classes.  Through research it was determined that standards based grading consists of separating the grade into standards, basing the grade only on academics, reporting the grade using defined levels of proficiency, allowing students to improve their scores, and communicating the grade in a clear manner. 

Standards based grading was implemented in each class by separating the tests into learning targets and reporting a separate score for each target in the gradebook.  The grade was weighted so that 90% was based on test scores and 10% was based on homework.  Work ethic, extra credit, and participation were not included in the grade.  Students were allowed a chance to improve their grade through retaking individual learning targets after each test. 

For this action research, data was collected in multiple ways.  Students and parents were given surveys regarding pre-conceived notions about grades.  Observations were made about student’s on-task time when given a review focused on improving specific learning targets as opposed to a general review.  Data was compiled showing student proficiency on each exam as compared to student proficiency after retakes had been factored into the grade.  Each of these types of data collection helped to give an overall idea about standards based grading and how it improved student proficiency.   

Presence

Presence is the "P" in AGAPE, which is the Lasallian framework that St. Mary's uses for developing the inner life of a teacher.  I see presence as what a teacher uses to develop a relationship with their students.  It has to with how a teacher is connected to their inner-self with a sense of purpose and confidence.  A teacher with presence works to help their students discover their own inner spirit.  

I think presence is appropriate for semester four in our master's program because we are starting the beginning of our school year and we have to start to build relationships with a whole new group of students.  It is hard to start these relationships and I think it helps to project confidence but also be approachable.  When you are present and honest with students, they begin to trust you and will be able to learn even more.  As the year starts, I keep this in mind and work hard to get to know my students and help them get to know me.  I let them see my inner-self and help them to think about who they are and who they want to be.  

Circles of Self

I did a circles of self activity where I had to choose 5 self-identities and then give up the least important identity one-by-one until I was left with the identity that was most important to me.  This activity was difficult because my identities are part of me and make me who I am.  It is hard to think about giving up friends, family, or interests that are central to my life.  

This activity is interesting to think about in terms of our students.  One of the questions that was asked was thinking about if we force our students to give up one or more of their identities when they come to school.  I hope that we never purposefully make a student give up their identity, but I can see how schools or teachers can do that without knowing it.  To change this, we can focus on getting to know our students and allowing them to talk about themselves and be proud of who they are.  

I also look at this activity and how it applies to my classroom in another way.  Students come to us as teenagers who don't necessarily know themselves.  We, as teachers, have the opportunity to help them decide what is important and what their identities are.  We can tell stories about ourselves and our lives and show our true identities and encourage our students to think about how they want to live and what they want their lives to be like.

Holonomy

For MEd class, we read a chapter in the book Cognitive Coaching called Achieving Holonomy.  I liked the writing and thought it had some interesting points.  The book defines holonomy in terms of how it can be used in cognitive coaching.  Holonomy is achieved when a person acts as both an individual and a significant contributor to a community.  They are influenced by what is around them, but at the same time influence that system also.  It is broken up into five states of mind: efficacy, flexibility, craftsmanship, consciousness, and interdependence.

Holonomy is shown in the MEd program in the way that we reflect on ourselves and our teaching and then bring it back to our schools and share it with our community.  It is an individual effort that ultimately will result in improving our teaching and we can share it with our colleagues to improve our teams.

The chapter talks about a study that asked employees in a business cooperation to rank the the parts of holonomy as most important to least important.  They ranked consciousness as the most important.  I am not sure if I can rank any part as more important than another part.  Interdependence could be the most important on my list because I think we can't survive without working together and we produce such a better product when everyone contributes.  But, without the other states, holonomy would not work as it is supposed to.

Each of the different states of holonomy can be seen in my classroom:
An efficacious person believes that they control what happens and that the outcome of a situation depends on their effort.  This is shown in how the master's program teaches us to look at our teaching practices and change and improve them.  As a teacher, I really think that what I do and how I act each day makes a difference to my students.

Flexibility is when a person can step back and look at a problem from a different view.  I liked how the chapter said "trusting their creative unconscious will work productively."  It is hard to stand in the middle of chaos (also known as 9th grade geometry class) and believe that things will work out in the end, but a flexible person can do that.

Craftsmanship is precision in the processes we teach and the language we use.  It continues to amaze me how my students will mimic my language.  When I started out as a new teacher I tried to simplify my language because I just wanted the lower students to "get it".  Now, I make an effort to use the technical terms along with the simplified version and I am always surprised how easily many of the students add those new words to their vocabulary.

Consciousness is a persons ability to be aware of what is happening to them internally and externally.  In the classroom this is shown through how we monitor and adjust to any situation.  The chapter talks about how it is a "gut feeling."  I think this is a big part of what makes a teacher good.  When we are getting our teaching degree, we don't learn how to respond to every single problem, but as we become more experienced, we know when our students need more time, when they need someone to talk to, and how we want to present ourselves in our classroom.

Interdependence is when a person contributes to the common goal, but also gains resources from their community.  This trait can be seen even at the basic level in our students and how they work with a group.  In my engineering class, the groups that present the best projects are always the ones that have strong individuals who work well together and share what they do for the good of the team.  Oftentimes a group that has the smartest students in the class is not the most successful because they don't know how to work towards group goals.  I think this is one of the most important traits of holonomy and we as teachers must realize it and work together so that our students get the best possible benefits.


Resources:
Costa, A. & Garmson, R. (1993). Achieving holonomy. Cognitive Coaching. New York: Christopher-Gordon Publishers

Action Research Abstract

  -->This is my first draft of my abstract for the review of literature about my current action research in my masters programs.  

Implementing High-Level Cognitive Activities in Geometry

Calla Athman

Blaine High School, Blaine, MN

This action research is focused on implementing high-level cognitive activities in a geometry classroom.  These activities will be used to increase retention and understanding of geometry concepts.  Research was conducted about a general definition of critical thinking, methods of implementing high-level cognitive activities, and the difficulty of measuring a student's ability to think critically.  For three units in the geometry class, students were given problems in which they had to use high-level cognitive thinking skills.  Strategies for approaching challenging problems were modeled in the classroom.  They were given surveys prior to and following the units where emphasis was placed on critical thinking.  Data from test scores before the critical thinking activities was compared to test score data after implementing the activities.  This action research is currently in progress.  The pre-critical thinking survey has been given.  Students are in the second unit where high-level cognitive skills are being taught and data is being gathered regarding students proficiency in each critical thinking task.  At the end, a conclusion will be formulated showing if there was an increase of retention and understanding of geometry concepts because of the additional critical thinking activities that were implemented. 

Math

Tomorrow we are going to the spring conference for the MEd program.  We will be joining discussions and seminars given by second year MEd students about their Action Research in their classrooms.  We are going to be able to connect with teachers in our discipline from all across the state.  I am excited to talk to other teachers that teach the same subject that I do. 

It is interesting to find out how other teachers from other school teach specific topics within our curriculum.  All of us teach in Minnesota and all are using the Minnesota State Math Standards as the base for what we should be teaching.  Each of our students will take the MCA math test as a junior and our schools will be judged on that data.  But, we don't all teach the same way and it is nice to sit down and discuss how others do things. 

In my geometry class, the next chapter we cover will be surface area and volume.  It is interesting to get into a discussion about formulas and whether they should be given to the students or whether they should be memorized.  Our world is so different from 20 years ago and now students have so much information available to them through the internet.  When they go out to the real world, they will be able to look up anything that they need, so is it still important for us to make them memorize mathematical formulas? My opinion varies on the subject, I am ok with having my students memorize information, and then give smaller tests just on that memorization.  Then for the larger tests, I think we need to give students the formulas and then we test them on their ability to apply the formulas.  It is a subject that many different teachers have many different opinions on, and it is interesting to be able to talk to other teachers about their opinions. 

Action Research

My current action research project for the MEd program centers on critical thinking.  I would like to know if implementing critical thinking will increase my students retention and understanding of our geometry concepts.  I have researched and found many different opinions about what critical thinking actually is and found methods of implementing it into my classroom.

For my project, I am going to teach strategies on critical thinking and then give my students a higher-cognitive level question each day for one chapter.  I will then take data on how my students scored on the problems, a survey about their opinions on the benefits of critical thinking, and an analysis of their previous test scores compared to the current test scores.

On Monday we will be starting the chapter where we will implement the critical thinking.  So far, I have not had too many challenges with this topic, but I do have a few worries.  I am going to be adding something to my lesson plan each day and I want to give my students adequate time to think about the question, but also get in the lesson and practice that they need.  So, time management might be a problem and I may have to change things around if needed.  Also, when researching, many authors discussed the fact that it is difficult to assess a student's ability to think critically, so this may skew my data.  I am excited to get started with my implementation plan.  I'm sure the research won't go exactly as planned, but I am interested to see what happens and analyze the results.

In April, we will be attending St. Mary’s Spring Conference.  This is where 2^nd year master of ed students present their action research and conduct Socratic Seminars with other graduate students. 

            The first session that I will be attending is about physical vs. virtual manipulatives in the math classroom.  The research that they conducted shows that there are benefits to using manipulatives in the math classroom, but also addresses the problems such as time constraints and technology difficulties that can be a negative for these activities.  The data that the presenter collected is about how student’s knowledge of the concept grew and how they were motivated and engaged when doing the activities.  I think this session will be interesting to find out which virtual manipulatives were used and how they implemented them.  In my classroom, I would like to use more of these and enhance my students learning through their 21^st century skills.   

            The second session that I will be attending is about grading policies and how they support high quality learning.  The research that they have conducted is about how a grade needs to reflect exactly what a student knows.  Their answer to the grading problems is standards based grading along with weighting the grade with at least 80% summative assessment.  Part of the math department at Blaine is doing standards based grading and our Geometry team is thinking about implementing the practice.  I am interested in seeing this model and how it has been implemented at another school and the pros and cons they have encountered. 

            The third session that I will be attending is called encouraging participation from the reluctant participant.  The main concepts they focused on were communication, culture, and technology.  The data that they collected shows that with this change the majority of their class is on task in various ways that include both interactions with peers and using technological devices.  I am interested in the techniques used for implementing a cooperative style of learning and also the strategies used to make electronic devices useful in the classroom. 

            The fourth session that I will be attending is about using iPads to increase student engagement.  It is a study about how we can use this technology in the classroom, how it can save money on books, newspapers, and computers, and the professional development that is needed for teachers to implement this.  I currently have a teacher iPad and our engineering program is looking at buying iPads for student use if we find good applications and uses for them.  I am interested in how they used the apps that are described in their research and the benefits that student iPads can bring.  I think that this technology can be very beneficial to our students but we want to approach it with plan for implementation or it may cause more work than it is worth. 

            The fifth session that I will be attending is about how metacognitive practices can be used to improve critical thinking.  Their research is focused on giving students skills that can be used in any subject and into their future.  They collected data through journals that students used on “Critical Thinking Fridays.”  My current action research plan has to do with increasing student achievement through critical thinking.  I am interested in finding out how they set up the one day of critical thinking and what type of activities were implemented.  I like the focus on student-reflection of their own learning and studying how the students actually learn.  

21st Century Learning

We have been studying 21st Century Learning and how it can work in our classrooms.  One of the parts of this type of learning that I like most is how it provides our students with skills to move onto college and careers.  I really believe that my job consists of not only teaching my students math but also giving them collaboration and communication skills that they will use the rest of their life.  In my classroom I want to put my students in pressure situations and then give them the skills to cope.  I want them to fail at something, but then show them how to work and get help to rise to the challenge.  A student has to know how to function in the real world and we have to do all of these things to teach them how to succeed.  

The other aspect of 21 Century Learning that I would like to implement into my classroom more is the information, media, and technology skills.  Students have access to so many different types of technology, but they oftentimes don't have the skills to use them to their advantage.  I would like to give my students more strategies that involve using technology to their advantage if they are unsure about a mathematical concept.  I would also like to teach my students the responsibility of having a cell phone, iPad, video game, etc, and the ability to put them down when they need to complete a task.  

The biggest challenge to the implementation of 21st Century Learning is the challenge that is present in every teachers classroom.  We never seem to have enough time to accomplish everything that we want.  Taking time to do activities that will build communication skills will help in the long term student grade and putting more technology in a classroom will save me time, but the initial setup takes work.  I do think 21st Century Learning is possible in the classroom, but we need to think of ways to implement it creatively. 

For our action research in the masters of education program we are going to make a change in our classroom.  We are currently doing professional development in the math department at Blaine that has to do with critical thinking.  We have looked at the benefits of using higher order thinking in our curriculum.  The change that I would like to make is to implement critical thinking activities in my lessons.  I would like to put higher cognitive level problems on the homework and tests in which the students have to think in a different way to solve the problem and then explain their reasoning.

Welcome to my blog!!!

This is a blog that I am creating through my Masters of Teaching and Learning at Saint Mary's University.  I am currently in my first year of the MEd program and teach math and engineering at Blaine High School.